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The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has done a wonderful job with Agro Tech India by bringing in a synergy between agriculture and industry, and also by bringing all relevant stakeholders at one platform, Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, said on Friday at the inaugural session of CII Agro Tech India 2022 here.

"Our ultimate aim should be to generate sustainable incomes for our farmers. This will reduce poverty and enhance prosperity for our 'annadatas'. We need to focus on not just on food production, but also on food processing and value addition. This will go a long way in transforming Indian agriculture in the 21st century," Dhankhar said.

The Vice President said with the contribution of visionary policymakers, ingenious scientific minds and above all 'annadatas' (food producers), India has attained the feat of becoming the largest producer of millet, pulses, milk, and jute.

The CII flagged off the 15th edition of its biennial agro technology and business fair named CII Agro Tech India 2022 on Friday. Making its return to the city after 2018, the response on the first day was overwhelming with farmers from the region thronging the fair.

Talking about the theme for this year, Sanjiv Puri, Chairman, CII Agro Tech India 2022, and Chairman and Managing Director, ITC Ltd, said, "CII Agro Tech India 2022 focuses on sustainable agricultural technologies, enhancing productivity and innovations for growth. Agro Tech reflects one important intervention in our journey to make a meaningful contribution to transforming Indian agriculture from production centric system to demand centric system with modern technology and sustainable agriculture."

The theme of this year's edition is 'Digital Transformation for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security', which encompasses focusing on sustainable agriculture; technologies; enhancing productivity and profitability for various stakeholders in the agriculture chain; innovations for growth and sharing of best practices for agri-excellence.

The event will consist of 246 exhibitors, including 27 international exhibitors from four countries.

Sharing about Haryana's agri sector, Governor Bandaru Dattatreya said though the state has a comparatively small geographical area, it is one of the biggest contributors to the food basket of India.

Agriculture is backbone of GDP and Haryana's contribution to agriculture is such that 14 crops are being purchased under the minimum support price (MSP), which is the highest in the country, Dattatreya said.

Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit said, "The state having land area of only three per cent of the net cultivate land of the country contributes to 25-35 per cent of rice, 38-50 per cent of wheat to the central pool of foodgrain. The state ranks fourth in the world in the terms of productivity and first in India amongst all the other states. I am proud being a governor of Punjab," said

Punjab and Haryana are the host states of Agro Tech India 2022, while the UT of Jammu and Kashmir is a partner state.